[APD] Re: Need Boston info for near-newbie

[Paul Krombholz <krombhol at teclink_net>]

I was in Medford, Massachusetts in the late 60's and can't help you 
get a stand, and probably my info on the fish stores is out of date. 
But, I remember that the water was a real problem.  It comes from 
reservoirs and, since there is no limestone in the area, it is soft 
and acidic.  It picks up a lot of copper from the pipes.  The tap 
water that I had available tested 5 ppm for copper, and it would kill 
a snail in 30 minutes and a fish in four days. I gave up trying to 
fix the tap water and started collecting water draining from a nearby 
reservoir in five gallon containers.  I would put clam shells in my 
tanks to add some calcium.   If your water is anything like that, you 
either have to use activated charcoal to adsorb the copper or collect 
your water the way I did.

I don't recall any outstanding tropical fish stores in the area, 
especially not any that had interesting plants.  I remember one 
little store in Medford that was selling ground pines (Lycopodium), 
probably collected in the Fellsway park just north of Medford, as 
though they were aquatic plants.  Knowing that they had no business 
being under water, I played dumb and inquired about them and was told 
that they came "from some river in the Amazon" and that they grew 
very well in an aquarium.
--
Paul Krombholz in sunny central Mississippi
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